Rosetta’s Orbit

Rosetta’s Orbit

Just days away from Rosetta’s orbital insertion around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Activity at the Rosetta Science Operations Center is hectic to say the least. Not only are they collecting data all the time, commands to control the spacecraft are constantly being refined and potential issues resolved as they happen. In fact the current set of commands aboard Rosetta expire at 12:00 CEST 05 August, so the commands for the next cycle of activity, including a thruster burn on Wednesday need to be ready for upload tonight. Then the commands have to get there!

The cycle of commands to be uploaded tonight will control the spacecraft until Sunday.